In our every deliberation we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations. That isn't just a marketing slogan from an excellent household products company, it's a guiding principle leading us to low impact living in the garden paradise of our dreams.
22 decembrie 1989 dimineata - zona Sf. Gheorghe (filmare furata de la S.R.I.)
Raw footage shot from a balcony near Parcul Sfantul Gheorghe in Bucharest at 9:30 AM on 22 December 1989. Therefore this is one of the first skirmishes of the 1989 revolution. This area is just south of Piata Universitate and the Intercontinental Hotel, which was a main focus of protester activity. The video shows folks in the street having various confrontations with police carrying shields. There are a few instances showing gunfire but it's not clear whether folks were actually shot or what happened. That is, folks scattered at the sound of gunfire, but all they did in response was BOOOOOOO and the sounds did not indicate anyone having been wounded, in this circumstance. There were people shot in other circumstances of the 1898 Revolution in Romania, of course, but it does not appear there were any shot in this recording.
Romanian Revolution - Cluj, raw footage
Raw footage shot on the streets of Cluj-Napoca showing elation and celebration in the wake of the Revolution. It's clear there's some confusion over the future. In at least one scene the results of violence are shown, such as a puddle of blood on a sidewalk.
Irish coverage of 1989 Romanian Revolution
Immediately after Romania's revolution against its Communist dictator, an Irish TV network sent a reporter to Romania. He put together a most interesting report showing little-known images, videos and information. A key question about the Romanian revolution is the context it occurred in, following other revolutions in Russia, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Poland and elsewhere. Was that wave of revolutions because of Western forces causing those revolutions? In the case of Romania, it's curious that in a country with a brutally draconian approach to dissent that any revolution had any chance of taking hold. The documentary shows video and images from Timisoara, where this revolution started, claiming there were spontaneous organically started by the people following a brutal response to a small protest. That much is the well known official history. But evidence is shown the Timisoara Army garrison joining to support the protesters, which was key to the revolution succeeding rather than being violently quashed. The suggestion being that the Romanian Military decided to opportunistically use organically started protests in Timisoara to force overturning the Communist government. The Military garrison in Timisoara is unlikely to have acted on its own. Instead the military command in Bucharest and other garrisons around the country are likely to have jointly agreed to allow these protests to grow into a full revolution. The bloodshed (over 2000 people died) came because Securitate and the regular Military acted under different command structures, and had different plans for the Romania's future.
Sibiu in the 1989 Romanian Revolution
The Romanian Revolution played out not just in Bucharest and Timisoara, but in several other cities. This documentary focuses on the Revolutionary activity in Sibiu. There was confusion, violence, shootings, and deaths, in a city quite a ways from Bucharest and the main activity.
